When designing next-generation new energy vehicle battery packs, photovoltaic energy storage system PCS, or seeking high-quality sealing solutions for high-temperature environments, you must be looking for a solution that can simultaneously meet the following stringent requirements:
Its performance remains stable under extreme temperature fluctuations ranging from-50℃ to 200℃.
It provides reliable insulation protection even when subjected to vibrations, impacts, and prolonged compression. In the event of thermal runaway or electrical faults, it effectively resists fire to prevent disaster escalation. Moreover, the material itself is environmentally friendly and durable, ensuring the product's safety throughout its entire lifecycle.
When facing these challenges, conventional insulating materials like plastics, rubber, or ceramics often fall short. Today, we're excited to introduce a highly favored engineering material-silicone foam-and highlight its core strength: exceptional and all-around insulation performance.
Electrical insulation: A robust dielectric barrier. Silica gel foam is naturally an excellent electrical insulator.
High volume resistivity: Its volume resistivity typically ranges from 10^12 to 10^15 Ω·cm, indicating extremely high resistance to current flow. This effectively isolates live components, preventing both leakage and short circuits.
Picture shows the test value of Volume resistivity for Sanpu Silicone
High Dielectric Strength: Even in film form, silica gel foam board can withstand high breakdown voltages (typically exceeding 10 kV/mm), making it ideal for critical applications like insulating gaskets and separators in high-voltage environments. Stability is Key: Unlike many organic materials that experience drastic dielectric performance degradation in high-temperature or humid conditions, the Si-O backbone structure of silica gel molecules remains exceptionally stable. Its electrical insulation properties show negligible degradation under extreme temperatures, high humidity, or prolonged use, ensuring long-term, reliable insulation performance.
Thermal Insulation and Heat Management: A Dual Approach When discussing insulation, it's crucial to differentiate between electrical insulation and thermal insulation. Silicone foam materials excel in both aspects.
Exceptional thermal insulation (low thermal conductivity): The foamed structure is filled with countless tiny closed or open air bubbles, which act as excellent thermal insulators. Consequently, silicone foam material typically exhibits a low thermal conductivity (0.04–0.08 W/(m·K)), making it an ideal thermal insulation pad and layer. For instance, in power battery modules, it serves as both an insulating layer between cells and an effective barrier to prevent heat transfer between them, thereby delaying thermal diffusion.
Thermal Resistance and Stability: These are the most notable strengths of silica gel materials. They can operate over a wide temperature range from-60°C to 200°C, with short-term exposure to even higher temperatures. Within this range, the material remains brittle-free, melts-free, and flow-free, while maintaining stable insulation and mechanical properties. This is particularly critical for insulation applications near heat sources such as IGBTs and power resistors.
"Insulation" of Environment and Chemistry: Constructing All-round Protection.
Fire Insulation: Silicone foam materials inherently possess flame-retardant properties, typically meeting UL94 V-0 standards without requiring hazardous halogen additives. This serves as a critical safety barrier in battery packs and power equipment, providing crucial time for emergency response.
Weather and chemical resistance: The silica gel has strong resistance to ozone and ultraviolet radiation, and is not easy to age. At the same time, it has good tolerance to water, salt spray and many chemicals. This invisible "insulating" barrier protects the equipment to operate stably in harsh environment.
When using silicone foam as an insulation solution, you gain not just a single component, but a versatile integrated solution.
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characteristic |
Value of your design |
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electrical insulation + thermal insulation |
It is multi-purpose, simplifies the structure design, and saves space and cost. |
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Excellent compression resilience |
As a sealing gasket, it can ensure long-term contact pressure, guarantee the reliability of insulation and sealing, and has low permanent compression deformation rate. |
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light weight |
The foamed structure significantly reduces its density compared to solid silica gel, facilitating lightweight equipment design. |
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Environmentally safe and non-toxic |
Compliant with environmental directives including RoHS and REACH, it is halogen-and phosphorus-free, meeting green manufacturing standards. |
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Easy to process |
It can easily perform die-cutting, stamping, and CNC machining, making it convenient to produce various complex-shaped insulating components. |